Out of Time
by trekkie99
Summary: She wakes up in a place totally unfamiliar, will she be able to adjust?
1. The 24th Century

I wake up slowly, as if out of a wonderful dream. As I open my eyes I see a woman standing beside me she's dressed in what appears to be a black and blue uniform with a blue coat. I wonder just where I could poss

"Hello" she says "I'm Dr. Crusher" when I try to sit up she gently pushes me back down saying "Don't get up just yet give yourself a chance to become accustomed to being awake you have been asleep for a while"

"Where am I?" I manage to croak out, my voice doesn't sound normal even to me "Water?" I quickly ask.

"You're in sickbay" says the doctor as she hands my a glass of water.

Just then a man walks into the room.

"Dr. Crusher, report" he orders.

"Awake and no problems adjusting, I think everything will be fine" reports the doctor.

The man nods, smiles and approaches me, the doctor helps me to sit up "I'm Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise," seeing my fear and uncertainty he says "No one will hurt you, what is your name?"

"Lieutenant Erin Rodgers, NASA" I say then ask "what is going on here, humans don't have starships" there is just a hint of panic in my voice, I cannot help thinking that this must be some sort of horrible nightmare.

"When was your launch date, Lieutenant?" asked the captain

"June 23,2023" I reply, thinking I must not let them know just how scared I really am.

Then another man if you can call him that enters the room he is like nothing I've seen before, his head has large protruding ridges someone calls him Wolf or something like that, with all that had been recently happening I pass out.


	2. A Talk With the Counselor

When I come to there is a different woman standing near me.

"Hello I'm Counselor Troi" she says "Dr. Crusher said that when you awake I could show you to your quarters, if you would like to get out of sickbay" she laughed.

"Yes thank you " I say.

As we're walking down a corridor she asked me "So I understand that you're an astronaut"

"Lt. Erin Rodgers, NASA" I reply

"What were you doing a small capsule all by yourself" she asked.

"We were on a sleeping ship mission" I answer, she looks at me confused

"Our trip was supposed to last about one hundred years, fifty years there then fifty back that is too long for one crew to survive and we didn't have the space or supplies to last a generation ship so it became a sleeper ship mission instead.

"Counselor Troi report to the bridge" called a voice I recognized as the captains.

The counsellor flagged down the nearest officer, a metallic looking man with almost automated movements

"Data, could you show Lt. Rodgers here to her guest quarters, I need to go to the bridge"

"Of course Counselor, this way please" the strange looking man replied gesturing down the corridor.


	3. Not a Cell Phone

We walked a few moments into an elevator type thing before I blurted out, "what are you"?

Which was quickly followed by "I'm sorry, I just meant you don't exactly look human"

"You are correct in your assumption that I am not humans, I am in fact an android" replied the odd looking officer

"Like the cell phone" I asked

He looked at me a moment, the elevator opened and we stepped into a corridor, then shook his head and said "no, I am not a cell phone, my name is Lt. Cmdr. Data, I am the Chief Operations Officer"

"Lt. Erin Rodgers, though I suppose it's just Erin now even if NASA did still exist I am a little out of time, I wouldn't know the first thing about being an engineer aboard a ship like this" I stated a twinge of sadness squeezing into my voice.

We stopped at a set of doors where he showed me how to operate the lock and allowed me to set a code before we entered the large and comfortable set of quarters, after seeing only a tiny bunk as my quarters for the past, well 300 years I guess. I became vaguely aware that Data was talking to me so I turned toward him and said

"Sorry, could you repeat that"?

He nodded and said

"I was asking if you were an engineer aboard you ship?"

"I was the engineer, I worked for years to earn that position, the first sub-light ship attempting to leave the solar system" I sat down as I realized that everything I had ever worked for was destroyed, and everyone I ever knew was dead. I felt like a weight was crushing me, I told Data that I wanted to be alone, I couldn't cry in front of my rescuers. He left after giving me instructions on how to use something he called a replicator, and saying that Counsellor Troi would come by to check on me. I fell apart.


	4. A World Lost

I woke up sometime later having cried myself to sleep, I walked over to the replicator and after a few attempts finally succeeded in obtaining a plain bagel with cream cheese, one of my favourite breakfasts, it tasted artificial not at all like the bagel stand in San Francisco. I sat at the small table after finishing my breakfast unsure of just what I should do with myself now. I try to think back to when my mission left I knew that when we arrived back most of the people I knew would be dead, but I didn't know that everything I knew would be lost, I had no where to go and no one who was familiar to cling to I had lost everything that mattered to me, my career, my ship, my family and my crew mates, my very best friends. Some people say that they would love to travel to the future, but what they don't realize is nothing stays the same and everything you know is in the past. I had become a relic something to be questioned then put on the shelf to be forgotten, not really needed but kept anyway.

Such was my internal monologue when the door chime rang. I opened it using the small panel on the side to see the bright smiling face of Counsellor Troi holding a package.

"Good morning Lieutenant" she cheerfully said followed by "May I come in?"

I nodded in the affirmative moving aside so she could enter, I was curious as to why she would call me by my rank after all NASA had been gone for three hundred years but I said nothing simply sat down in the chair I had previously occupied.

"I see Data showed you how to work the replicator, did he tell you it can also replicate clothing, should you wish to change out of the jumpsuit you where provided"

I looked at her and the replicator then said "I really just want to have my uniform back" thinking to myself that it was the only thing I knew as familiar, she smiled with a knowing look before handing me the package she had brought with her

"I thought that would be the case, feel free to change then the captain has requested to speak with you" I nodded before getting up I suppose if the captain wants to see me I better look presentable I thought to myself.


	5. First Officers

After changing into me uniform and tying my hair back in a rather severe bun I quickly washed my face before following counsellor Troi out to the corridor and into another elevator thing.

"What will the captain want to know?" I inquired.

"Mostly about your mission we can't seem to find any record of it, your ship or the crew". replied the counsellor. We walked out into a large room where a man sat in what appeared to be some sort of commanding chair, with others manning stations at the front and rear of the room. As we entered the man stood up and walked over to us. He stuck out his hand in greeting. I shook it.

"You must be the astronaut from the capsule, I'm Commander Riker, ship's first officer" he said smiling jovially

I nodded and replied with "Yes sir, Erin Rodgers"

"The captain wished to speak with Lieutenant Rodgers" said the counsellor.

Raising an eyebrow in my direction at the mention of my rank he nodded toward a small door on the opposite side of what I now assumed was the bridge. "In the ready room, he's waiting for you, very nice to meet you Lieutenant" he said emphasizing my rank

We walked to the opposite where the counsellor pushed on a small panel cause it a door chime much like my quarters followed by the command of "Come" the door opened and I entered.


	6. Debriefing

The captan glanced up form his desk the said "thank you counsellor, you're dismissed". She nodded and after giving my arm a reassuring squeeze. "Please sit down", he said gesturing toward the chairs in front of his desk. I take a seat, I don't think I've been this nervous since I was asked to take my position on the SS Constellation, even then I wasn't this nervous, I at least knew somewhat, what to expect, but here everything was different, and I had no idea what to expect.

"Please relax lieutenant, this is just a routine debriefing, now I can assure you whatever you can tell me about your mission, ship and crew will be helpful, not only in our attempt to find some record of it which I regret so far has been unsuccessful, but also for us to find some family or relation of yours to contact and inform them that you are alive.

I nodded and started "our mission was top secret, we were all sworn to secrecy, everything was on a need to know basis. We couldn't even tell our family what we were doing, they were considered a major security threat. Our mission was to travel to Alpha Centauri, following the destruction of the probe sent there to collect data. Our most recent research had shown it had a high chance of being terra formed. Everything was completely routine, once we were out of earth orbit we recorded any final messages for our families to be given in the event our mission failed, they were transmitted and we activated the hypersleep units, I was the last one to go in because I needed to ensure that they were all working and that the crews medical signs were fine. I went into my unit and activated it, then I woke up in your sickbay."

"There were no complications, no signs that your section had separated"? Asked the Captain.

"No sir, the only failure that I know of would be in our autowake sequence designed to wake us once we were nearing Alpha Centauri." I replied. He nodded then said

"Thank you lieutenant this is very helpful, I will see that you are contacted if we find anything, dismissed". I nodded, got up and left the room.


	7. A World Gained

I met Counsellor Troi on the bridge and she asked if I might like a tour of the ship, if I felt up to it. I replied in the affirmative, after all this ship was my home now I had better get to know the layout. We walked though deck after deck I was fascinated with all they could fit, it was an entire world bottled into a ship, yet it was impossible to feel cramped.

We walked into engineering where we met Cmdr. Data

"Hello Counsellor, lieutenant" he said nodding at both of us in turn

"Hello Data, I was giving Lt. Rodgers a tour of the ship, would you have the time to explain about the warp core while we are here?" Asked the Counsellor

"Yes Counsellor, the warp core mixes a set ration of matter and anti-matter to enable faster that light travel." He explained.

"Fascinating" I exclaimed "this makes my ship archaic, it could only travel at 0.89 the speed of light. Would you be able to tell me more?" I asked

He nodded before replying "my shift is over now, would you like to go to ten forward we can discuss more there?"

I agreed and we walked toward the turbo lift, I had much to learn.


	8. Ten Forward

In ten forward Data and I met with an young man who introduced himself as Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher, he reminded me of my nephew, another brilliant though unsure young man. _'Not a young man'_ I remembered as I realized that Lucas was now dead. However this also made me curious."Commander, would it be possible to see what happened to my family, my sister she had a son and I would like to know what happened to him."

"It may be possible, however we would need to go to a computer terminal to try" he answered. I nodded but was still unsure, I didn't know how to use the computers on this ship.

"I'll show you if you'd like" offered Ensign Crusher "The computer in the lab down the corridor should be able to access those records".

I nodded in my thanks before asking Cmdr. Data "would it be possible to discuss the warp drive later?"

"Certainly, I have observed that humans have an innate desire to know what has happened to those they are close with, we can postpone our discussion" he stated before leaving to speak with the woman tending the bar.


End file.
